Monthly Archives: April 2008

Rush Limbaugh has officially lifted the operational pause in Operation Chaos: Operation Chaos is back at full speed, and we have no change in direction, orders from headquarters remain exactly what they are: You are to go out and sustain the Democrat primary season by virtue of voting for Hillary Clinton. Nothing has changed, ladies and gentlemen, nothing whatsoever. Now is not the time to go weak in the knees. »

It’s only one poll and the spreads aren’t significant, but the latest survey from Fox News has Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama by a 44-41 margin, and doing better than Barack Obama against John McCain. According to the survey, Clinton leads McCain by one percentage point, while Obama trails him by three. Hillary probably needs both confirmation from other polls that she’s more popular than Obama and bigger margins if »

Europe’s soccer champion this year will be an English team (or at least a team that’s based in England). That outcome was guaranteed yesterday when Manchester United defeated Barcelona 1-0 on a glorious strike by the diminutive evergreen Paul Scholes. Scholes has been playing in European competition for United since 1994, but missed their victory in the 1999 final due to suspension (too many yellow cards). Now he’ll finally get »

An English professor at Dartmouth used to say, “I don’t really know what I think until I write it.” He was referring to the fact that thoughts crystallize when subjected to the rigors of the English language and its rules of usage and grammar. And he was paying homage to the magic of the lonely, and in his mind sacred, encounter between author and (in those days) paper. Scott McClellan »

Douglas Feith served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from July 2001 until August 2005. His government service extends back to work at the NSC and the Pentagon during the Reagan administration. His work at the Pentagon during the Reagan administration earned him the Defense Department’s Distinguished Public Service medal, the department’s highest civilian award. Mr. Feith has now written War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the »

Dr. Larry Arnn is the president of Hillsdale College. He is also the former president of the Claremont Insitute. For three years (1977-1980) Arnn served as director of research for Sir Martin Gilbert, working with Sir Martin on Finest Hour: 1939-1941 (the link is to Simon Schama’s review of the book), Volume VI of the monumental authorized biography of Winston Churchill. Hillsdale College Press is now republishing the authorized biography »

… but a sucker like Jimmy Carter comes along only once or twice in a century. There was lots not to like in Carter’s interview with Wolf Blitzer today, but let’s just focus on his version of events in the Middle East: BLITZER: Let’s talk about foreign policy, a very sensitive issue: Your recent trip to the Middle East, your decision to meet with Hamas, a group the U.S. government »

Rush Limbaugh has called for a pause in Operation Chaos. Rush is deliberating over his next order: You can’t vote in North Carolina and Indiana ’til Tuesday anyway, so there’s really no pause. It’s not as though the election is tomorrow. I just wanted you to know your commanding officers are eagerly, diligently, and effectively planning the next strategy here, based on [Obama's] speech and the reaction to it. Allahpundit, »

As Paul noted earlier, Barack Obama denounced Jeremiah Wright today. While political realities no doubt contributed to Obama’s decision to break with Wright, I don’t doubt that most of what he said was sincere. Obama’s purpose, of course, was to make clear that Wright’s outrageous rants “don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs.” In support of this statement, Obama appealed to the evidence of his own writings: And anybody who »

Minnesota Democratic senatorial candidate Al Franken titled his mock memoir of a presidential campaign Why Not Me?. Over the past few weeks, with his failure to pay workers’ compensation insurance in New York and his failure to file corporate tax returns in California, he has begun to answer the question he asked in the title of that book. Now the Star Tribune reports that Franken owes $70,000 in back taxes »

Barack Obama has finally said that he is outraged by the positions of long-time spiritual adviser, Jeremiah Wright. This after having famously avowed in his “landmark” Philadelphia speech that he could no more disown Wright than he could disown the black community or his white grandmother. At the time Obama made those remarks, I called him courageous. I guess a downturn in his election prospects was all that was necessary »

During his interview with Chris Wallace on Sunday, this exchange occurred: WALLACE: Did you talk to reverend Wright recently about his decision to make a series of public appearances at this particular point? OBAMA: You know, I didn’t talk to him about that. I had talked to him after all this had happened, partly because I regretted  I always regret people who are civilians, essentially, being dragged into these »

Yesterday, by a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court upheld the state of Indiana’s requirement that voters present photo identification before voting. Which Justice broke ranks with the four-member liberal bloc to conclude what common sense dictates — that the law is “amply justified by the valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process?” The answer is: Justice Stevens, who wrote an opinion in which Chief Justice »

In his widely lauded Philadelphia speech, Barack Obama declared of Reverend Jeremiah Wright: I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. It wasn’t quiite up to George McGovern’s expression of “1,000 percent” support for Thomas Eagleton as his running mate after revelations of his shock therapy, but it left Obama and Wright closely joined. Something about the revelation of Eagleton’s shock therapy made his ultimate »

The Spring issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) has just been published. In the issue Daniel Oliver reviews the life and work of the late, great William F. Buckley, Jr. Much has been written of Buckley’s accomplishments lately, but Oliver reviews Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription, a recent collection of correspondence from National Review’s long-running Notes & Asides column, to remind us of Buckley’s singular wit, his »

It always seems like a no-brainer to the Democrats: we’ll promise to take some money from the “rich” and give it to those most likely to vote for us; how could it go wrong? But those pesky voters–what’s the matter with Kansas?–don’t think it’s quite so simple. Rasmussen reports that by 65% to 16%, likely voters oppose the Democrats’ scheme to increase capital gains taxes. That’s partly because lots of »

Another highlight of Reverend Wright’s talk at the National Press Club today occurred when Wright discussed Obama’s announcement of his presidential candidacy: MS. LEINWAND: Senator Obama has been in your congregation for 20 years. Yet you were not invited to his announcement of his presidential candidacy in Illinois. And in the most recent presidential debate in Pennsylvania, he said he had denounced you. Are you disappointed that Senator Obama has »